1. Field
The present disclosure relates to advanced IPTV set top boxes.
2. Background Information
Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV, refers to television that is distributed over an IP network—the same kind of network used to surf the internet and exchange emails. In reality, much more than television can be sent over a network. Using IPTV technology, it is easy to distribute terrestrial and satellite television and radio, videos/DVDs, digital videos on-demand (VoDs), digital signage, information boards, and web content to a facility or home. All of this multimedia content can be viewed on standard and high definition TVs as well as personal computers.
There are different forms of IPTV. “Internet IPTV” is delivered over the internet to and from anywhere in the world. An example of this would be home videos on YouTube.com or TV programs on Zattoo. As this type of IPTV travels over the public internet, there is no effort to optimize bandwidth or content delivery. Videos are easily displayed in a web browser but usually at low quality and with delays in transmission.
Telco IPTV is delivered by a phone/internet/cable provider, also referred to as a telecommunications provider or Telco. Often the television programs one watches at home have travelled across an IP network in the same fashion as internet traffic—and now some phone services such as SKYPE VoIP—is delivered. Telco has the ability to implement quality of service mechanisms that ensure reliable delivery of live and on-demand content. With on-demand TV shows, TV content is stored on a server somewhere on the provider's network.
Broadcast IPTV is when television broadcasters transmit their programming onto the internet for public consumption via personal computers. Many channels are broadcast for free, while others charge a fee for subscribing to their service. Unfortunately, broadcasters have no control over bandwidth or quality of service.
With all forms of IPTV, television and video can easily be supplied to various consumer premises equipment, including set top boxes so long as coupled to an existing IP network infrastructure.
A major benefit of IPTV is that new building construction can forego the need of setting up a coaxial network. Audio and video can instead be received via a phone line. Even phone lines are now becoming obsolete with VoIP becoming the dominant form of voice communication medium, and wireless access commonplace.
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a telecommunications protocol that provides fixed and fully mobile internet access. The current WiMAX revision provides up to 40 Mbit/s with the IEEE 802.16m update expected to offer up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds. The name “WiMAX” was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard.
The forum describes WiMAX as “a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL”. The “last mile” or “last kilometer” is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. The phrase is therefore often used by the telecommunications and cable television industries. The actual distance of this leg may be considerably more than a mile, especially in rural areas. It is typically seen as an expensive challenge because “fanning out” wires and cables is a considerable physical undertaking. Because the last mile of a network to the user is also the first mile from the user to the world, the term “first mile” is sometimes used.
To solve the problem of providing enhanced services over the last mile, some firms have been mixing networks for decades. One example is fixed wireless access, where a wireless network is used instead of wires to connect a stationary terminal to the wireline network.
Various solutions are being developed which are seen as an alternative to the “last mile” of standard incumbent local exchange carriers: these include WiMAX and BPL (Broadband over Power Line) applications.
The 802.16-2004 version of WiMAX, also known as 802.16d, refers to the working party that developed this standard. It is sometimes referred to as “Fixed WiMAX,” because it has no support for mobility. By contrast, 802.16e-2005, often abbreviated to 802.16e, is an amendment to 802.16-2004. It introduced support for mobility, among other things and is therefore also known as “Mobile WiMAX”.
Mobile WiMAX is the WiMAX incarnation that has the most commercial interest to date and is being actively deployed in many countries. Mobile WiMAX is also the basis of future revisions of WiMAX. For purposes of this disclosure, WiMAX is used to refer to both standards interchangeably.
The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for providing fixed and portable mobile broadband connectivity across cities and countries through a variety of devices. It can be used to reliably and cost-effectively provide a wireless alternative to cable and DSL for “last mile” broadband access. Broadband (internet) access, of course, facilitates providing data, telecommunications (VoIP) and IPTV services (triple play), gaming services and the like services traditionally available to end users via a cable, DSL, or even satellite receiver.
As more and more companies are deploying WiMAX to provide mobile broadband or at-home broadband connectivity across whole cities or countries, this has resulted in competition in markets which typically only had access to broadband through an existing incumbent DSL (or similar) operator.
Additionally, given the relatively low cost to deploy a WiMAX network (in comparison to GSM, DSL or Fiber-Optic), it is now possible to provide broadband in places where it might have been previously economically unviable.
With the proliferation of wireless broadband access and the availability of digital television, advanced STBs which typically were able to provide IPTV functionality via a wired link in the home (via PSTN, cable or satellite) can instead use an external WiMAX receiver as a “last mile” alternative for establishing the needed broadband connection to the STB or PC in the home.
Unfortunately, despite the proliferation of wireless technologies, end user equipment suffer from the fact that a particular wireless modem may not be supported by the actual network infrastructure deployed in a given area. Even if it is, there is still the issue of the hardware being designed to operate in the available frequency bands. In addition, the bandwidth capabilities, and thus quality of service requirements, very much depend on the distance of the modem from the network.
In this regard, an IP STB designed to connect to an IP broadband network over a wireless broadband connection, such as for example WiMAX may not be feasible for a large number of operating environments where last mile wired facilities are otherwise available.
It is desirable to have advanced wireless IPTV set top boxes that have the flexibility of conventional wired IPTV set top boxes and address the disadvantages of conventional wireless IPTV set top boxes.